Strenth symptoms and conditions

Glad I took the time to read the noncommercial posts! During my thyroid check last year bloodwork showed high cholesterol. I was put on Crestor in addition to having my Synthroid dose adjusted. A few weeks later I was absolutely miserable. Couldn't get out of bed. Everything hurt. My doctor thought I was "depressed" and asked if I wanted anti-depressants. Not needing to add another pill to my daily repertoire - I declined. Six weeks later I am feeling worse and just want to lay down and cry. The doctor had no idea why I would be feeling that way and was convinced it was either depression or thyroid issue. I was getting ready to leave for a trip to Mexico that had been planned a year in advance and was non-refundable - and I didn't have the strength to even pack the stupid suitcase. The trip was a bust - I laid in a pool chair just feeling crappy. What a waste!

Funny thing - nobody stopped to consider I've had a thyroid problem for 20 years and this horrid nightmare just started after I started taking Crestor! A few weeks later I stopped the Crestor entirely and after a couple of months I felt back to normal. Now, three years later - I've been talked into taking Lipitor. In my naivety (because I explained to the doctor that Crestor made me ill) I trusted that it would be different. It's taken three weeks for me to put two and two together - but here I am again - muscle aches - can't get out of bed. Everything just hurts. My knees, arms, mostly shoulders and in between. With all that is an overall lethargic feeling. Lipitor stops today -and if the pattern continues and I feel better in a few weeks - it's no statins for me ever again. I'll just have to eat like I'm supposed to and hope for the best!

I was given prednisone for the second time this year having never taken it.
1st time was for an allergic reaction to sulfa,
thought I was having a heart attack a couple of hours after it kicked in.
(I am 28)
Lost so much strength, used to go out & do 10-15 chin-ups, couldn't get to 1.
Grouchy, weepy.
That was in August.
I November (1 week before thanksgiving) I got sick with upper respiratory, same cold as rest of my family, but it knocked me out. Doctor figured it was cause of the 5-8 cigarettes i smoked at the time,
prescribed antibiotic.
Flash to 2 weeks before Christmas:
Laying on couch, unable to breath, went to doc, given antibiotic, inhaler, and Prednisone:
2 pills 2x's a day for 1st three days, then 2 pills 1x a day next three days.
I think they where 20 mg?
I was in very bad shape,
But NOW
I had tried to give up those last few cigarettes I had held on to, since I had gotten so sick.
I had insomnia, nausia, insatiable appetite, sweating, fuzzy upper lip ( i am female)
gained 15 pounds, depression, couldn't even shower unless I dragged myself through it, quit quitting smoking to try to alleviate the depression, but this is unlike anything I have ever felt.
Oh, and the reason I am up so late,
my right thigh feels like it is dying from the inside out.
It started the day after starting the meds, that was December 21st. It is now January 3, and it won't stop. I am so worn out from it.
I can't sleep.
It's like a cramp that never ever ends, but it's down in the bone.
My 3 yr old daughter put her weight against it and I screamed.
It seems like it is walnut sized, with pain radiating out from it.
I thought I might have a blood clot, my husband brought me Aspirin tonight in bed, and now I just cannot sleep,
it doesn't just hurt, it is hurting to distraction.
I feel out of my mind,
and so old.
My stomach had been solid abs a few months ago, I worked so hard on them, now, I do not have the strength to lift a jug of milk, and my tummy looks more like pizza dough.
I am 5'6" and went from 118 lbs to 135, right now back down to 127 as I cannot eat even though I am starving, I just can't.
But I am really scared about this leg pain.
I swear there is something in there, and at night I fear it coming loose in my sleep and killing me. Mind you, I am not sitting here imagining it, i am feeling this pain in what little sleep I am getting, and the dreams start.
I was on it a short time, but it was 2 times this year, within 6 months, do you guys think it is the reason?
any thing you think would help. Thanks

To the recent poster who mentioned gluteal pain, yes, I have this too and lower spine. My right shoulder was in burning pain for one or two months and the rotator cuff eventually tore.
My legs are so weak and my left leg is nly 50% of the strenth of my right leg. I drag it like Quasimoto becuase it loks on me. My intestinal tract is so shot I have been going through all kinds of tests at UCSF and now STANFORD and it looks like I might have Chrohns disease. Insomina huge problem. I wake up when I do sleep and my body and especially mhead and neck area "shutter"...like a huge tremoring. My whole body seems to feel gripped inside, tight. It makes me moan without even thinking about it and kind of fighting for my breath. Nerves are shot, can't stand in any lines . Too much fear of gripping and panic. Had none of his until after taking the Levaquin.

Thanks for your comments "patience". It definately has been life changing to for her and all of us. You mentioned not to blame everything on the drug, and that is a very good point. I guess we shouldn't do that, although it is tempting. We are all supporting her and coaching her through this. I wish you strenth and healing too.
Pam B

I started my 'adventure' with anti-depressants 9 months ago.
The first was Zoloft. I began to feel totally weird and out of it, I couldnt function or barely talk. I was told this was depression and I was hospitalised and then it was changed to Effexor.
It was increased up to 300 mg a day.
I NEVER felt anything good from this stuff! all i had were the side effects
-Couldnt sleep
-awful sweating but just in the hairline.
-NO feelings
-NO taste of food (guess thats why the weight loss)
-NO energy
-felt like I had morning sickness all day.
-SCARIEST thing... it was like my IQ was chopped in half!
-I still have no retention of things I read or things that happen
-Constant thoughts of suicide. (more than when i was just depressed and not on medication)

Im trying to get off it now... slowly... and its tough. At least the sweating has finally stopped and I can taste food a bit.

I have absolutely NOTHING GOOD to say about Effexor. Its supposed to be industrial strenth for the severely depressed but I dont feel it did a thing.
I would not take it again, knowing how it was.

of course now, im supposed to be trying Wellbutrin. I dont see anything coming from that either.

Side effects I've experienced: weight gain in stomach and breasts, pains in chest and joints, palpitations in heart and brain, depression, tiredness and weakness, dificulty concentrating esp. when reading, and a change in voice that everyone notices

MY STORY
I have been taking advair for two years under the belief that it did not have the sideaffects associated with an oral steroid.
About six months ago I started having chest pains so severe at night I thought I was having a heart attack. I went to my GP the next day and we concluded that perhaps I had exercised to vigorously the day before (I had joined a club to lose the weight I had gained, in the stomach and chest area, since taking advair and to build up my muscles because I thought I was losing strenth due to my age, 47. My legs, arms and butt are fit, but my stomach and breasts look like I'm having a baby). In the last three months I have also experienced hip pain that would wake me up one or two nights a week. I made another appt with my GP and he thought it was time for me to see a specialist. Last week, after one Xray, the specialist told me I have lost half of the cartilage around my hip bones. He had me go for blood tests to figure out why and what we can do. Two nights later, I couldn't fall asleep because of the heart palpitations and, after finally falling asleep, I woke up with what sounded and felt like a "PING" in my brain (It felt as though a nerve or vessel had exploded at its end). That morning it dawned on me that it could be the advair, so I got on line to google and typed in ADVAIR SIDE EFFECTS and found this website (it is only fifth in the list....it should be number one!) I just called the specialist to find out that I have no bone disease in my blood, so tomorrow when I see my allergist I'm going to have him wean me off this nasty drug and get my life back.

I never would have taken advair, if I thought that it was so dangerous. If anyone else is having joint pain, you really should see a specialist and have an xray to see if there is a problem....as the person below has said repeatedly in her messages, "listen to your body" and do something about it.
If there is a class action, count me in....I feel as though I've been duped into being a tester for this drug. I wish I had known!